CCR90

I personally like seeing these kinds of builds/restorations. I never really venture to the 97 forums. Looking good though. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Manuellabour247

Restore=rebuild. It works either way and what you're doing might help somebody else with the same Gen truck. Keep up the good work.

kirklandkie

Doesn't look like i got much done today but I dropped the gas tank, swapped a brake line from my master cylinder back to the rubber line to the rear axle. I used nickle copper alloy brake lines which (hopefully) will hold up a lot better than the old steel stuff. Got two stuck brake bleeders in the back though... so that's going to have to be tomorrows priority. If anyone has any suggestions to get them out other than heat/oil let me know.

kirklandkie

Oh also, I had painted my filler neck with POR15. Upon removing it after a few weeks i discovered the paint had begun to deteriorate and was peeling up. Leave that area as absolutely clean metal. paint after install

kirklandkie

Got the bleeders free today on the rear drums. Had to completely disassemble them and use the oxy/acetylene to get them out. On that note you can rebuild a drum caliper for about 4 bucks from NAPA (a savings of 6 dollars from buying new!!!!). A picture of painted drums and one of the old bleeders for your entertainment.
Oh also replaced a brake line that spun on me on the rear axle, no pics though.

DanAustin

Your making good progress it's looking good

kirklandkie

Thanks a bunch DanAustin, just trying to keep a record of all I've done. Got more done the past couple of days. Painted both inner frame rails plus underside of forward cross-member, axle shafts, and gas tank haven't done the meatball yet since i'm pretty sure when i take my power wire wheel to it i'll find the cover has rotted though and that's where it's leaking... don't want to make my seep into a leak just yet. Did evap lines out of 3/8" copper tubing all of the way to the engine compartment, I had to do it in 3 sections rather than the OEM 2 just to make it fit. I haven't bothered taking pictures under the front of the truck/engine compartment so you all will just have to imagine that. The lines pictured are touching but they aren't in the final product.
Unrelated note: fixed the 2nd tire leak on the same tire in the girlfriend's car in two weeks. She has picked up more nails in the past 6 months than i have EVER... oh well...

-Kirk

kirklandkie

Got the brakes bled today and the gas tank installed. Seeing the entire rear half all painted up is a thing of beauty.
Not pictured is a steel plate rectangular washer i made as a gas tank strap beef-up. The cross-member in that area is tender so when i installed the washer i coated it top and bottom with thick tar. Should stop it from going bad entirely. Also, having replaced all the brake lines from the engine back I can't get a real nice bleed out of it . Any ideas? ABS related perhaps?

-Kirk

kirklandkie

Ok, i've had a bit of a break from the truck. Went on a work related trip and spent some time with family but i'm back at it. Bolted up my rear bumper mounts, i used 7/16" grade 5 bolts for this, It was a tight fit but they went in there. Painted the rear bumper frame (started gloss but it was tacky overnight and the condensation turned it satin). Touched up some stuff, using rustoleum red primer for prep and put a top coat on my cross-member since POR15 doesn't have any UV resistance.
Lastly some minor alignment issues between the cab and bed, the bed is sitting about 1/2" too high on the left side. I suspect a cab mount has degraded. More to come on this soon.

-Kirk

kirklandkie

Do you all like rake? Because i hear you like rake? But seriously folks this insane amount of rake is temporary. I need to buy some drop shackles to compensate for my beefier leaf springs and bring it to stock height.
Do any of you have a 4x4 97-03 they could measure the hub center to fender flare for me? I'm not even sure what my height was.

-Kirk